Thursday, September 23, 2010

What I love most about making and baking things is just playing around with flavors. Turn a root beer float into a cupcake. Add some kimchi to a pizza. Infuse green tea into EVERYTHING. Oh, how I love it so.

I don't know what happened to my eclairs but for some reason they were oddly flattened. Despite this little detour, they still tasted awesome. I cannot even express how delicious these were! The choux pastry was just barely sweetened, and the bitterness of the matcha powder cut into the sweetness of the custard, so the chocolate glaze added the perfect amount of sweetness and richness that the eclair needed. I loved how the matcha flavor was delicate but still very prominent, and of course, custard. How could you go wrong with custard.

These photos are my ode to matcha. I love, love, love tea and love, love, love matcha green tea even more! It's earthy, rich and luxurious. And bonus, very good for your health.

To make the choux, preheat the oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside. In a heavy saucepan, combine the milk, water, salt, sugar and butter and place over medium heat until the butter melts and the mixture comes to a full boil. Add the flour all at once, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon. Keep stirring until the mixture has formed a smooth mass and pulls away from the sides of the pan and some of the moisture has evaporated, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the with the paddle attachment. Add the eggs one at a time and mix on medium-high speed, incorporating each egg before adding the next. When all the eggs have been added, the mixture will be smooth, thick and shiny.

Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag fitted with the tip of your choice. Pipe out "fingers" about 5 inches long and 1inch wide, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and starting to show some color, about 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 F and continue to bake until the shells feel light for their size and are hollow inside, about 12 minutes longer. They should be nicely browned all over. Remove from the oven and using a metal skewer, poke a small hole in the end of each shell to allow the steam to escape; this keeps the shells from collapsing. Let cool on racks.

To make the custard, whisk everything together until well combined and begins to thicken, about 3 - 5 minutes. Refrigerate until ready to use. To make the glaze, combine all the ingredients in a small heatproof bowl set on top of a saucepot filled with barely simmering water. Stir frequently until the chocolate is almost completely melted, but do not overheat. Remove the glaze from the water bath and set aside to finish melting, stirring once or twice until perfectly smooth. To assemble, you can either slice the choux pastry in half or use a pastry bag to fill the pastry with the custard. Once filled, dip the tops of the pastries in the chocolate glaze and set on a rack to allow the glaze to set. If desired, you can dust the tops of the eclairs with some extra matcha powder!

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About This Blog.

Part of this blog will be dedicated to my adventures and misadventures in food. Let's just say I'm a girl who knows how to eat. I love to experiment with new recipes and new restaurants so this blog is just a way to share my journeys in food with whomever is interested.

The other part will be my random rants about music that I enduringly and currently love. Just me, doing my part in spreading the joy of good music to those willing to listen.

I guess I really should add an unending amount of other senses since I have actually delved into more topics than as stated by the latter but oh well. I'm interested in a lot of things, so you all will just have to deal with my inconsistencies...